Artist and craftsman Phan Thị Thuận was born and raised in Phùng Xá, a village famous for its silk-making tradition.
Thuận is a third-generation silk maker in the family. After watching villagers in Phung Xa working with old and clunking silk-making machines and knowing that the traditional craft was on the brink of extinction, Thuận wanted to find a new way to help her fellow villagers.
She thought about a new kind of fabric and after spending much time and effort in researching and testing, Thuận has created the first fabric from lotus silk. The lotus silk was made from lotus stems – the part of a lotus that used to be thrown away for it has no value.
When Thuận began to make lotus silk, her family didn’t have a lotus pond. So, she decided to buy a big field just for growing lotus. Making lotus silk is a painstaking process. The craftsmen need to be skillful and attend to the smallest details to make lotus fabric.
To make a scarf, a worker might need to use up to 50000 lotus stems. The whole process would take a worker around a month to complete./.
